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Fby Stuart Osthoff

With a little planning, elbow grease and the right gear, you can turnbeaver wood into the perfect canoe country campfire. (William Lake)

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wilderness skills

Campfire Savvyor many of us, the perfectcanoe country day ends

with loons calling to a gorgeoussunset while friends huddlearound a flickering campfire toshare the latest adventures. Theloons and sunset are specialgifts from the powers that be,but that campfire is anothermatter. Like any outdoor skill,you can often get by with ahalf-hearted attempt to throwsomething together. But in wetconditions, this kind of effortusually yields a smoldering,smoky mess and lots ofcussing. On the other hand,you can pride yourself ondoing wilderness campfires theright way. Guess which ap-proach we’re going to focus onhere?

Evening is settling in on alate May trip as I make the finalportage into Sturgeon Lake,where we’ll camp and fish forthe next four days. There isdefinitely a nip in the air. If itstays clear, there will be froston the coffee pot in the morn-ing. So on the return trip forthe second load of gear, I pickup a couple handfuls of birchbark lying on the trail.

In birch bark, nature providesthe ultimate fire starter. Butlesson #1 in canoe country isyou’ll rarely find it lyingaround campsites. Plan ahead.Pick it up when you see it.Stash it in a zip-lock bag. Don’twait until you get to camp.Fading daylight will have youscurrying to set up the tentsand get dinner and dishesdone. You’ll be tempted toyank a hunk off a live birch,possibly damaging the tree iftoo many layers are removed.Finding birch bark fire starteris easy, if you think ahead and

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A full moon rising over canoe countryusually means clear and cold. Time to

gather round the campfire to warmthe heart and soul. (Gabbro Lake)

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gather a supply on theportages.

Upon finishing the portage, Ipoint the bow north to ourisland home, a mile and a halfdown the lake. We’ve beendaydreaming all afternoonabout having the lake to our-selves and maybe, just maybe,catching a trophy 30-inchwalleye. But this is no time foridle daydreams.

As we paddle down the lake,I scan the eastern shoreline forgray driftwood, blown up ontogently sloping ledgerock bydominant westerlies. And I’mchecking out every bay alongthe way for tell-tale signs ofbeaver activity. Birch bark isnature’s fire starter. The beaveris nature’s provider of theperfect raw material for canoecountry campfires. I smile withrelief as a big old beaver lodgeof gray sticks appears in aweedy little corner, only a halfmile from the campsite.

It’s been a long first day.We’ve been paddling/portagingfor ten hours. The group istired, sore and hungry. I’vebeen in this predicament manytimes before and have theanswer. I whip out the littlecamp stove and boil up a messof polish sausage and serve itwith a fresh salad—premixedlettuce, carrots and cabbage towhich I add tomatoes, cheese,croutons and dressing. Thismeal takes only a one-burnerboiling water. It’s a fast, deli-cious gut stuffer with virtuallyno cleanup. I knew arrival atcamp would be late, too late togo out and do things right for acampfire.

Overnight, temps drop intothe mid-20s, and it is indeedfrosty until the sun clears thepines. The gang, so full offishing bravado yesterday,lingers in the sack, nursingmuscles gone soft over thewinter. I know when they doget moving, it’s going to behard-core angling for the nextthree days. In order to fish hard

from dark to dark, a comfort-able, orderly camp is essential.So before fishing fever strikes, Igrab life jacket, paddle andtrusty camp saw and launch acanoe—careful not to banganything that would wake themighty anglers.

Within a few minutes, I glideup to the beaver lodge spottedlast night. There are no greensticks around, a sign the localbeavers are probably basingoperations elsewhere. Beaverwill pile birch, aspen and aldersaplings/limbs into food cachesabove their lodges. They eat thebark and mound the sticks.With the bark removed, thewood air-dries and hardens.Some of the sticks will hanginto the water, but any partshigh and dry are the perfectfuel for cooking and story-telling fires.

Sticks of 3- to 4-inch diam-eter are the perfect size, split inhalves or quarters they burnhot with minimal smoke. Thislodge has more than enough tomeet our needs for the nextthree nights. First, I load half-a-dozen 8-10 foot “logs” into thecanoe, all 3 to 5 inches indiameter. No cutting here; justpick them up and place aheadof my stern seat. Next, I gatherseveral arm loads of shorter 2to 3 foot lengths, most are 2 to4 inches in diameter. Last arethe smaller beaver sticks, frompencil size to an inch thick.These are perfect for kindling.

Back at camp, I make noeffort to be quiet pitching thewood out of the canoe onto therocks. Next, I carry armloads ofwood up by the fire ring. Thetwisted roots of a log act as avise to hold the sticks forsawing into one-foot lengths.Before pulling my camp sawfrom its plastic sheath, I put ona pair of leather work gloves.The 7-inch blade with razor-sharp offset teeth cuts on thepull stroke. If you short strokeit or let it bounce out of the cut,you can hit the hand steadying

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the piece of wood. You’ll benursing a nasty gash for the restof the trip, just like thosepainful northern pike slicesthat take forever to heal.

In 15 minutes all the sticksare cut cleanly into foot-longpieces. Next comes the split-ting. Good dry beaver wood hasfew knots and usually splitsvery easily. I split all the piecesthat are large enough to get theaxe into. My Gerber sport axe isjust right for this job. I standeach piece on end, leanedagainst another log and gentlysnap the axe into the foot-longchunk, just enough so it bitesan inch or so. Then finding aflat piece of ledgerock, I moder-ately hammer the other end ofthe chunk down onto the rock.Beaver wood splits without alot of force. So occasionally Iinadvertently strike the rock.Every couple of trips, I touchup the edge with a file.

Next, I neatly stack all thesplit wood next to the fire ring.Then another stack of thepencil like beaver wood kin-dling. Most of this can besnapped into one-foot lengthsby hand. Stack it out of thecook’s way and where thosegathering around won’t trip onit. I despise arriving at a camp-site to find old gnarly, greenbrush and half-charred logsstrewn about. The first thing Ido is haul it all way back intothe brush. It’s a wonderful,ethical practice to leave thenext party a neat stack of splitwood/kindling. But don’t leavea mess of crud that doesn’t passfor firewood.

With the cut, split andstacked beaver wood, kindlingand your bag of birch bark firestarter, there is one last stepbefore any fire starting. I walkway back in the woods, 100yards minimum from camp,and break off the lower deadbranches of balsam fir trees.Many areas will have standingdead balsam, killed by insects.These are perfect. If none are

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available, the lower deadbranches of standing livebalsam will do. And when it israining, the overhead canopy ofthe live tree will shelter theselower dead branches to somedegree.

It takes a lot of rain to reallysoak these bottom branches.We’re talking twigs, smallerthan a pencil in diameter. Ifthey snap off easily with yourfingers, they’re dead and itwon’t harm the tree. Just do itback in the woods wherenobody has to see it. Don’tdenude the lower branches ofthe trees everyone has to lookat right in camp. What I end upwith from this is a couple ofbasketball sized wads of clingybalsam twigs.

Taking this to camp, I’mready to build a campfire. First,wad up a softball sized clusterof balsam twigs. Thread acouple pieces of birch bark intothe wad, lay some 1/2 to 1 inchthick pieces of beaver wood on

the balsam, then top off with 3or 4 larger pieces of split wood.Ignite the birch bark and thebalsam will erupt hot enoughto penetrate the beaver woodkindling which will in turn getthe larger split pieces going.The balsam wad will quicklyturn to ashes giving more spaceto add more beaver wood. Youwant to have that initial rush ofkindling fuel to get the biggerstuff going. Skimp on kindlingand it will burn out before thereal wood catches, and you’restarting over. Once going good,just maintain the heat you needwith your handy stockpile.

For cooking fires, it’s best tobuild up a bed of coals—especially for bacon, bakedpotatoes, steak or fish. Bringalong tinfoil to cover the metalgrate. You can’t just throwgood meat on the BWCAW firegrates. They are full of who-knows-what, the meat willstick and the old char will taintit.

By thinking ahead, pickingup birch bark on the portagetrails, looking for beaverlodges/driftwood on lakeswhere you camp, collectingbalsam twig kindling (back inthe woods) then sawing, split-ting, stacking and tarpingenough for the duration of yourstay, that’s the basic method forcanoe country campfires.

But play this game longenough, and there will cometimes when it has rained steadyfor three days. There are nobeaver lodges around, and youneed a fire NOW! In this cir-cumstance, the last place tolook for wood when you needto make a fire is around camp. Inever even consider looking forthe main firewood supply here.Even if there is wood for thecutting, if we all cut branchesand trees as close to camp asour lazy carcasses can get awaywith, every campsite will be aneyesore of stumps and slash.

Don’t cut firewood, evenfrom dead trees, in sight ofcamp. The lone exception tothis would be in the massiveblowdown zone, where clean-ing up around camp with a sawwould actually be a positiveinfluence. Part of the “Leave notrace” approach to wildernesscamping is leaving no sawed-off stumps, at least not visiblefrom campsites, portages andlake shores.

Even in cases where there isno beaver wood around, I stilltake my saw and canoe and godown the lake. I hike back intothe woods and cut a couple of4- to 5-inch diameter down orstanding dead spruce. Even ina rainy stretch, you can splitdead spruce to get at the innerdry wood. Select trees that aregray and have lost their bark.These are trees that have beendead and drying for manyyears. Anything pulpy, youdon’t want. With spruce, de-limb it at the start and saw into8- to 10-foot lengths and hauldown to the canoe. Saw andsplit it back at camp.

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The BWJ Camp Saw (6 oz) and Axe (11/2 lbs) are the “rightstuff” for canoe country campfires. See VTP page 87.

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Stop and think about it asecond. By canoeing down theshoreline a quarter mile, thenhiking 100 yards back into thewoods, you’re going to find anuntouched supply of wood andleave no human disturbancewhere others would typicallysee it. If you remember nothingelse from this article, rememberthis. Get away from camp to getyour firewood. It’s better foryou, those who follow and theland itself.

North country residents whoheat their homes and cabinswith wood, usually use birch.Birch has more BTUs thanother area trees. Birch used forhome heating must be sawed,split and dried for one yearbefore burning. But birch isalmost never an option forcanoe campers. Any deadbirch, down or standing, willtypically hold its bark. Thisbirch bark will keep the woodfrom drying out and turn itpulpy. Only birch worked onby beaver is likely to be a goodsource of fuel for wildernesscampfires.

If you can find it, red pineand jackpine can be handledsimilar to spruce. If I had mychoice, I would use whitecedar for all my campfires. It’srelatively free of limbs/knots,splits like a dream and burnsclean and hot. The problem is,it’s tough to find. Even whenwind blown or crunched byanother falling tree, cedars arereally tough to kill. It’s com-mon to see cedar snappedclean in half and still sproutingnew green growth. I love thearoma of cedar campfires on acool, bugless autumn night. Itdoesn’t get any better than that.

In Quetico, where you packin your own adjustable firegrate, you’ll often need torearrange the fire pit rock piles.Don’t create new fire pits.Many are too tall for goodsmall cooking fires. You wantthe grate within a foot of theground. Stack flat rocks care-fully so the grate is nice and

stable. It’s embarrassing to havea couple heavy cook pots ofwater collapse into the perfectfire. Or worse, drop dinnerdown into the ashes.

In the BWCAW, the firegrates are provided. They aredriven into the bedrock so theyare very stable. Use them. Don’tbuild new fire rings. Keep yourfire in the fire grate. It’s safer,easier, and it’s the law.

It’s inevitable, you’ll spend alot of prep/cooking timehunched over the campfire.You’re going to be down in thedirt, dodging the smoke andstoking the fresh wood whenneeded. It’s not convenient likethe modern kitchen, but theview is a whole lot better.

The golden rule with canoecountry campfires is if youleave, drown them out good.Many a campfire has started a

wildfire while “just taking ashort nap or swim.” It doesn’ttake much to blow an emberinto the surrounding dry duffof most campsites. Drown it,stir it and when dead out—clean out any tinfoil or garbage.Pack this out.

Campfires are a classic part ofthe canoe country wildernessexperience. Canoe trippingduring fire bans quickly re-minds us of this fact. But likemost things in life, the moreyou put into doing it right, themore you’re likely to get out ofit. Get yourself a good saw andaxe, plan ahead and devote thetime and energy to lay in asupply of good dry wood andkindling for the duration ofyour stay. Then sit back, getcomfortable and let the tall fishtales be told.

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